CATTLEYA LAWRENCEANA. 
[Phare 342.] | 
Native of British Guiana. 
Epiphytal. Pseudobulbs clavate, compressed and furrowed, deep green in some 
forms, in others they become of a deep reddish brown, and are invested with 
numerous deciduous membraneous sheaths. Leaves solitary, oblong, from six to nine 
inches in length. Scape terminal, erect, issuing from between a brownish purple sheath, 
and bearing numerous flowers, which are between four and five inches across; 
sepals and petals spreading, the sepals being linear-oblong, acute; the petals much 
broader than the sepals and elliptic-oblong in shape, with undulated margins, all of 
a fine rosy purple colour, the petals in some forms being slightly darker than the 
sepals; lip oblong, emarginate in front, closely rolled over the column from the 
base, forming a long tube, where the colour is bright rosy purple, the expanded 
portion of the lip is rich dark rosy purple, with a dark purplish band in front 
of the white throat. Colwmn triquete white. 
CaTTLEYA LAwReEncEaNA, Reichenbach fil, Gardeners’ Chronicle, xxiii, p. 338, 
4, 
A 
Reichenbachia, i., t. 12; Lindenia, i, t 
Although this Cattleya is new to cultivation, it appears to have been discovered 
in the year 1842 (upwards of forty years ago) by Sir Robert Schomburgk, and is 
alluded to by him in his “Travels in British Guiana”; he, however, erroneously 
believed it to be Cattleya Mossie. Nothing more appears to have been heard of this 
fine plant until 1884, when it was found by one of the collectors of Messrs. Sander 
and Co., and about the same time it was found by Mr. Everard im Thurn, who 
found it growing on the trunks of trees and the branches of shrubs which grow 
in the deep gully formed by the Kookenaam River, where it flows along the base 
of the south side of the twin mountains of Roraima and Kookenaam at an altitude 
of 3,750 feet, an account of its discovery being published in the Gardeners’ 
Chronicle, in volume xxiv., p. 168. : 
During the past few years many new Cattleyas have been introduced to this 
country, but the one we here illustrate is a splendid species, and at the same time so 
very distinct, that it is singular how Schomburgk should have fallen into the error 
of mistaking it for ©. Mossie. There have been several importations of Cattleya 
Lawrenceana recently, so that it is within the reach of Orchid growers generally, 
who should not neglect this fine plant, more especially as it appears to be of not 
growth, and a profuse bloomer. Several different forms have already — 
amongst the imported plants, which goes to prove that, like other rece i 
varies considerably in colour, from the deep rich hue of the normal type, to others 
